Your Thoughts: Authentic Animal Replica

Hi folks, due to the missus being fiendishly strong and ridiculously scary, I've given in and my Muppets have taken up permanent residency above my work station instead of in my living room. Heres the happy little fellows here...

That is a great photo. Animal should be here in a few weeks time. I have considered posibly making the adjustments that some have tried. the tounge, the wetting of the feathers, but man I would've never noticed stuff like that if I hadn't seen comparisons. Darn! But yeah that photo looks awesome. I'm looking forward to making animal look like he's trying to bust out of the glass case. Like using those static clings of broken glass in front of his fists. We'll see.

Hi folks, due to the missus being fiendishly strong and ridiculously scary, I've given in and my Muppets have taken up permanent residency above my work station instead of in my living room. Heres the happy little fellows here...

Wicked picture! How hard was it to get Gonzos eyes to stay and how did you get Kermits face to look soooo good!

Click to expand...

Wow, long time no...read? How are you? I can't believe you're asking for advice, I genuinely believe your poses to be amongst the best I've seen, if not the best!

With Gonzo's eyes I threaded a needle and made a fairly big knot on the end of the thread. I then put the needle through the eyes in between the plastic mechanism and eyelid so that the knot acted like an anchor. I took the thread under the eyelid (making sure not to penetrate the foam) and out through the blue fur at the back of the head. I then turned the needle around making a very generous 'stitch' across the back of the head and then did the same in reverse, ending with tying another big knot to anchor the other side.

You with me so far?

With the big stitch at the rear of the head I can pull and alter the eyelids to how I want them to be, like a primative eye mechanism, and hold the eyes in place without risking damaging my little blue chum (just by tying a knot in the stitch). With Kermit I wasn't as gentle - I just jumped up and down on his head until the fleece gave a more loose feel, rather than it looking filled. I then just yanked on Kermits 'jowls' to give it a look as it it were hanging off a puppeteers hand. I'm still not 100% happy with it but in my upcoming holiday I intend to perfect the art of posing

Wow, long time no...read? How are you? I can't believe you're asking for advice, I genuinely believe your poses to be amongst the best I've seen, if not the best!

With Gonzo's eyes I threaded a needle and made a fairly big knot on the end of the thread. I then put the needle through the eyes in between the plastic mechanism and eyelid so that the knot acted like an anchor. I took the thread under the eyelid (making sure not to penetrate the foam) and out through the blue fur at the back of the head. I then turned the needle around making a very generous 'stitch' across the back of the head and then did the same in reverse, ending with tying another big knot to anchor the other side.

You with me so far?

With the big stitch at the rear of the head I can pull and alter the eyelids to how I want them to be, like a primative eye mechanism, and hold the eyes in place without risking damaging my little blue chum (just by tying a knot in the stitch). With Kermit I wasn't as gentle - I just jumped up and down on his head until the fleece gave a more loose feel, rather than it looking filled. I then just yanked on Kermits 'jowls' to give it a look as it it were hanging off a puppeteers hand. I'm still not 100% happy with it but in my upcoming holiday I intend to perfect the art of posing

Click to expand...

Hey bud, I havent really posted for a while, I have been lurking though! Just checked out the new videos of the Muppets on YOU TUBE....Im loving it! Thanks for the tips, the Gonzo eye lid idea is a great trick, Ill get to work on my Gonzo ASAP. Where you going on holiday?

I don't know to be honest. The company I work for shuts down for 3 weeks in the summer and all staff HAVE to take that break. I'm probably gonna be hanging around my house for the most part, but I'm trying to convince the Missus to go Nice for a couple of days...we'll see!

Of all of you that own Animal. Can you give me some pointers, or points of caution on the replica? DO's and Do Not's of posing him. Limitations of the materials? Concerning the boas, the tounge, the eyebrows. Thanks guys. I can't wait for him to arrive. Hopefully Gonzo too by the end of August.

Of all of you that own Animal. Can you give me some pointers, or points of caution on the replica? DO's and Do Not's of posing him. Limitations of the materials? Concerning the boas, the tounge, the eyebrows. Thanks guys. I can't wait for him to arrive. Hopefully Gonzo too by the end of August.

Click to expand...

I hope this helps:

First - don't panic when you open him. He looks wild and weird and un-Animal-like. He's huge too. But he does settle into a beautiful poser with rather minimal work.

The mouth hinge issue with Animal isn't ideal and the removal and/or replacement of the tongue doesn't appear to have helped others that much so it's likely best left alone.

I recommend allowing the head feathers to settle for several hours before slightly dampening your fingertips with water and gently taming his hair. I after a few weeks you want to trim a bit here and there to your liking, but I would suggest doing that sparingly.

The eyebrow shells are white and the edges are exposed. The adhesive has some "give" so I pulled them back, carefully Sharpied the tips in black and then tugged the fabric back over them. Make sure you don't get pen on the eyeballs. I then twisted the black mohair brows in little sections to make it pop separately rather than just look like one big clump.

The eyeballs were dealt with using this method at the very end of the Gonzo review:

Wow you weren't kidding! He arrived this morning, and forgot there's no satin liner even packaged up. The only this that was an understatement is Animal is HUGE! The thing is a monster! WOW! Yeah I found alot of imperfections in the making of him. But also alot of nice touches. In trying to close the mouth the metal skeleton unline kermits is not in the entire bottom lip, it seems to be directly under the tounge, so when you try to close the mouth the tounge raises with the bottom mouth fabric, and the bottom lip hangs a good half inc lower. Alot of exposed glue on the chin hairs (not the feathers) Was impressed how each feather was hand plugged though. Things you know beforehand but don't appreciate until you see it. Think some hairspray to the eyebrows for that twisted look might be an idea. Because the puppet character is either flinging his arms around running or drumming, or in that hunched, heavy breathing mouth barely open with almost closed eyes thing he does. I find it to be very difficult to pose him in a way that makes him look like himself. My problem is hating all the poser photographs, and trying my hardest to make Kermit look like his puppet counterpart we see in llive action. I have done a pretty good job trying to replicate the fabric to appear as if there's a hand in his head, and how his arms and hands are with puppeteering sticks attached. (The creased elbows, and wrists) I don't neccesarily know what I'm doing with Animal. Which also may be due to me really only paying attention to Fozzie and kermit my whole life. But I do give him 3 3/4 stars out of 4. He's friggin huge, his color appears natural to the character, his teeth, and eyelids are great. The tounge I'm toying with cutting in half. Clothes are awesome. Maybe I need to do some serious mushing. I can also see where the collar makes a big difference with the long neck. I have him bent at the neck with the head tilted up. I'll take some pics and post them in the Animal picture thread before the end of the week.

I finally trimmed some of his moustache aftet much debate. I know this version better reflects the recent Animal, but I favor the classic fella and this helps make him look more like the TMS DVDs I've been watching.

I love my animal. I went the oppositwe way. Was in no hurry to have Gonzo. The sock nose being so blue/purple is a problem for me, as well as the mouth. I just felt that for everything Gonzo wasn't, animal made up for. You really can't judge by some peoples pictures. Others have that certain knack on putting character into their static poses.
When I first had animal I barely did anytyhing to him as far as posing. Now that he's been around for two months I find myself posing him more and more trying to perfect a stance that screams "I'm A MAD-MAN!" Even without the chains and collar he looks great. The only reason I went and got those items for Animal, is people I know are the managers at a Spirit store. After hunching over his head, you don't even see his neck.

Kevin
The spiked collar we've been using is available from spirithalloween.com If your in the US you should be able to find one near you with their store locator. they have some great stuff in-store.

Yeah, I went ahead and bought Animal on eBay for about $340 including shipping... I'm excited! I can't wait till he gets here.

And this Animal replica will be my official biggest "toy"

Click to expand...

Congratulations! Just remember that he looks rather freaky right out of the box. It takes a while and a little bit of fussing over him to settle into the Animal we know and love. But once he does, he is beautiful. These MR items set the bar for Muppet product.

I second what frogboy said, His head will appear like a pom-pom. Biggest toy isn't the word for him. After seeing the size of the frog, and when Animal comes out of that box, you'll think to yourself... "This thing is huge." That's a good price I got him for about $280.

Yeah, you should've seen me when I got the NECA Balrog figure... I was so excited 'cause it's so huge, and I thought the same with Kermit and Gonzo.... and knowing that Animal is bigger than them is just so exciting!

woohoo... Ok.. I just ordered my Animal and Gonzo figures! If you've been sitting on the fence about them (for me it was a good deal financially) MR has them marked down right now, $100 off each... (for me this was a bonus, finally got a settlement check from a car accident last year and had decided we'd buy these 2 first thing before something happened to divert the $ elsewhere again..) so I got both for just under $500, plus free shipping (and to alaska, that's a big deal..)

Anyway.. so, soon these 2 will be making their appearance at my house!
*can't wait, can't wait, can't wait*

We already have Kermit, he's sitting on top of a book case in my living room atm.. usually he's fishing, but right now he's playing with his new microphone
just have to get or make him a lil trench coat and hat.. hehehe
And he has a little santa outfit for christmas..
so now i've got to start thinking of outfit ideas for the other 2!